State Rep. Andy Coulouris, who seriously pondered a run for Speaker of the House, will not seek re-election this year.

The 31-year-old Saginaw Democrat said he wants to spend more time with his young family and has not made immediate plans for his future after his second House term ends this year.

“I’m obviously looking at options, and we’ll see,” he told The Saginaw News. “I do know that I’m not planning for running for any office.”

Coulouris’ wife, Natasha, is the public health officer at the Saginaw County Department of Public Health. Their children are Mia, who was born in June, and Alexandra, 3.

“My decision not to run for re-election became easier with the birth of my second daughter,” Andy Coulouris said in a statement. “The demands of my job and days on the road would too often stand between me and those whom I care about most: my wife and two daughters. And though my family has always been incredibly supportive and encouraging of my political and legislative endeavors, my own priorities have changed.”

In an interview, Coulouris said, “It’s the schedule, and increasingly as I was taking on more responsibility in Lansing and considering a run for Speaker of the House, I was spending more time entirely on the road for days on end in other parts of the state.

“I just didn’t like the direction that was taking me personally.”

Coulouris said he reached his decision around Christmas.

“Sometimes you have an answer to a question that’s staring you in the face, and you just have to realize you already have the answer,” he said.

Coulouris said he pondered running for Speaker of the House —last held by a local politician and Taymouth Township Democrat Lew Dodak who was upset by then forklift driver Michael J. Goscka, a Brant Township Republican, in 1992 — as a way to serve the state and the area in a greater role. Current Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, a Redford Democrat, has formed an exploratory committee for governor.

“Obviously, the state of things in Lansing really were getting under my skin, and I saw an opportunity and it seemed as though I had some support within my caucus to pursue that,” Coulouris said. “I kind of saw it as a natural opportunity to show leadership not just for my community, but for my state. It was something that would have required a great deal of work to attain and would have required even more should I have won.”

He said he has no interest in the speakership even if Dillon resigns to run for governor, as some have called for him to do.

“Absolutely not, and I wholeheartedly opposed any efforts to force him out of the speakership,” Coulouris said. “I don’t think someone who’s not going to be returning for a third term should be keeping a seat as important as that warm.”

He said he made the announcement he would skip re-election now to give other candidates time to get into the race and mount a credible campaign.

Coulouris counts Dillon among his most important political allies.

“One of the luxuries I have had as a legislator is being a close ally to Andy Dillon,” Coulouris said. “I voted for him to be Speaker of the House twice and had a lot of access and participation in decision making and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”

The Saginaw News could not immediately reach Dillon for comment.

Coulouris is chairman of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee. He serves on three others: Judiciary, Health Policy, and Tax Policy.

The Michigan Municipal League named Coulouris its 2009 Legislator of the Year.

He stepped down from Saginaw City Council, where he served for three years, in 2005 to run for the state House 95th District seat. Once elected, he left his position as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Saginaw County. His grandfather, Larry A. Coulouris, serves on City Council.

The state lawmaker mentioned one frustration he discovered with his arrival in Lansing: Never-ending partisanship that can stonewall legislative solutions.

“I’m disappointed that I think every two years a fresh crop of legislators come with a full head of steam thinking that at long last they are going to change the way Lansing works and, in a lot of ways, things never change,” he said.

“It’s a tremendous problem, particularly when not only are the stakes this high for Michigan, but when the problems are as great as they are. It’s difficult to meaningfully address them with such a partisan atmosphere.”

On one issue, however, he said Great Lakes Bay Region lawmakers have teamed up to encourage a growing solar and renewable energy industry in the Saginaw Valley, a major hope for future employment in an area rocked for decades by auto layoffs and the loss of thousands of other jobs that depended on them.

“I’m proud of the groundwork we have laid for a true economic rebirth for our region,” he said in a statement. “The re-branding of our region as a catalyst for the energy technologies of the next hundred years is monumentally important. The singular focus on this effort by the governor and our region’s legislators has begun to bear fruit.”

With a year left in office, Coulouris said he expects to fine-tune foreclosure legislation he authored that gives people a 90-day reprieve from losing their home if they work with lenders to find a solution.

He also expects a tough year ahead as the Legislature faces another year of balancing the budget with multi-billion dollar deficits forecast.

“It sort of takes up all the oxygen in the room,” he said.

Whatever direction he decides to head after this year, he said he hopes to have a challenging job and a continued commitment to public service.

“All the while, I want to go home at night and see my daughters,” he said.